Over at the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, Mike Stenhouse has reached an interesting conclusion about the General Assembly session that just adjourned … er, recessed.

the Political Class in Rhode Island is living in a “land of make believe”

This isn’t just an off-the-cuff statement by Stenhouse.  He actually sets out the evidence.  Below are a few items that particularly struck me.

In the land of make believe, simply talking about economic development suffices as progress, while in the real world, we saw no major policy changes that gets onerous tax and regulatory burdens off our backs. …

In the land of make believe, levying tolls and raising fees are just harmless means of finding revenues to pay for pet spending programs. In the real world, each of these money grabs results in yet another disincentive to some kind of productive economic activity.  …

In the land of make believe, it is considered a win-win to pay people NOT to work, via an expanded TDI family leave program. In the real world, actual businesses, workers and families know that this is a lose-lose scenario, forcing even further costs and loss of productivity onto an already strained private sector.

In the land of make believe, unionizing daycare workers will improve the quality of care. In real Rhode Island, unions will siphon off more dues from more workers and will increase their political power in the state.  …

The one item about which I might vary slightly with Mike is this one.

In the land of make believe, Obamacare and state exchanges were to lower the cost of health insurance. In the real Rhode Island, rates will rise by 12%.

But only because I fear that he is optimistic:  a twelve percent increase will almost certainly turn out to be a conservative projection. He is correct about the larger point:  Rhode Island’s health care exchange will do absolutely nothing to curb healthcare costs and insurance premiums.  Only in the land of government make-believe would a hugely expensive, clunky bureaucratic overlay have any impact whatsoever on real-world costs.